Remembering Beacon
by JacklikesRWBY
Summary: After the fall of Beacon the world of Remnant is crumbled. Zachariah survives and is remembering his day in beacon before the fall. With the help of his journal he will make sure the memory of Team Banzai will ive on.
1. Chapter 1

Waking up in his bed didn't feel right. It felt like he wasn't there, like he shouldn't be there. It didn't feel the same as when he'd wake up in that bed before Beacon. Rolling over to his bedside table he saw a meal on a tray with a note. He didn't bother to read it. He was pretty sure it was from his mother with her being the only other in the house. His father was sent to help with the Grimm invasion and his older brother was nowhere to be found. No one knows where he went or if he's dead. He was just missing.

He looked over to his silver alarm clock and saw it was well past 1:00pm. He rolled back over to try to escape back to sleep. But before he could try to drift off he heard a knock at the door.

"Zachariah, sweetie, are you awake?" His mother said barely above a whisper with a slight hint of sadness.

He didn't respond. He simply continued to face the white wall his bed was next to. His mother let herself in. He didn't mind, but he didn't want to talk so he decided to stay quiet. His mother walked over to his bed and saw the food that was now cold was also untouched. Then she saw her son. His black hair a mess and his face looks like it hadn't been washed in at least a week.

'He probably hasn't left his bed after his father got the call to leave,' she thought while staring at her child.

She continued to stay there for just a couple more minutes. She sat down on his bed and started to rub his shoulder that was exposed from his dark blue bed sheets. He felt a warming presence from her touch.

"I know you can't hear me right now b-but," Her voiced cracked. "I love you please always remember that."

He could hear the sadness in her voice. His mother slowly got up to leave and he felt her weight leave his bed. He felt a wave of cold air when she got up. She silently walked to the door and opened it slowly. Before she left she turned to him. He continued staring at the wall.

"I love you," She said it just above a whisper before she left.

When she closed the door, he could hear her start to quietly cry as she walked away down the hallway. This caused a wave of sadness to wash over him and his eyes started to water. He was always told that he could only cry in the loss of someone. In this he told himself that it was okay to cry because he'd loss so many people. So many people were gone, and he would never see them again. He lost Neal. He had lost his best friend. They had been together since they were little. They were neighbors. They played together. They enrolled at Signal together. They enrolled at Beacon together. They stood against everything together. He lost Bridget. She was the fearless leader of team Banzai. She always knew what to do. He lost Irene. She was his love. She was the one he wanted to be with till the end. He lost so many more friends that just his team. Thinking of this made him cry more and more slowly getting louder. He tried to muffle his cries with his pillows. He didn't like to cry even if it was okay according to what he was taught. He wanted to be strong, to remember them while being happy. But he couldn't stop. He just kept on crying and crying even when he had thought he couldn't have more tears he did, and the crying continued. When he finished it was dark in his cold and lonely room.

He rolled over to look out the window. He saw it was dark and looking at his alarm clock once more and saw it was well past eight and almost nine. He sat up in his bed. His greasy black hair fell in his eyes, he didn't bother to move it. His unwashed face was oily. His hands felt dirty with dirt under his nails. The last time he had taken a shower was when he got home, and his mother washed him because he didn't have the strength to stand. He fell asleep in the bath and when he woke he woke to the news of his father had to leave, his brother was missing, and everyone and almost everything he knew was gone. He only left to use the bathroom once a day. That's all he needed since he wasn't eating. He would just try to sleep so he didn't have to remember and cry over the loss of everything. But even sleep wouldn't let him escape. In his dreams he saw everything on fire, things being destroyed, people dying, and finally at the end of his dreams he would see a giant flash of white that came from the CCT. He would wake in a sweat and start to cry.

He slowly got out of bed and put on new clothes he found folded on the chair in his room. They were a white T-shirt and black and blue checkered pajama pants. He went to the bathroom and washed his face and hands. He looked in the mirror. He saw a mess of hair, the small cuts on his face, and finally the eyes he didn't recognize. They had bags despite the amount of sleep he had. They were also sunken in and were bloodshot. He slowly made his way down the stairs to the kitchen. As he did this he felt a rush of cold air then he legs buckle and fell down the last 5 wooden stairs. At the bottom he just laid there feeling useless, not being able to stand by himself. His mother quickly ran over to him when she saw that he made the noise.

As his mother helped him up he could hear her talking but was unable to make out what she was saying. He just stared at his mother. Her raven hair was a mess being unkept and unwashed. Her eyes were just as bad as his. There were sunken in, bloodshot, and had fatigue. He could easily tell his mother had been crying still seeing the streaks the tears left on her face. Seeing this made him cry. He just wrapped his arms around his mother and cried. She was warm and felt welcoming. She made no move to leave or to push him away. Instead she just deepened the embrace and he loved his mother for it. After 10 minutes he got himself under control and made to push away. His mother didn't let him but instead kept hold of him. That's when he realized she was crying too. After staying together for ten more minutes they made their way to the kitchen.

His mother forced him sit at the table. He could smell something that brought memories from before beacon. That's when he saw his favorite meal. Homemade lasagna, Oreo pie with chocolate pudding, and a large class of milk. When his mother set these things in front of him he couldn't help but just smile. He looked at this and just couldn't stop smiling or from letting a single tear run down his face. He looked at his mother and she had a small smile on her face too. Her eyes looked less dark and had a hint of happiness in them. He took a piece of the lasagna and put it on one of the shite plates that were sat around the table. He handed it to his mother who simply pushed it back to him. He wouldn't eat until she did. He cared to much about her. He pushed it back and she accepted with a nod and a smile. He smiled back and took a piece for himself. They sat and ate their lasagna and pie in quiet. It was a happy silence and he enjoyed it. When they finished his mother collected the dishes and put them in the sink.

She finally broke the silence saying, "Zach I have a gift for you."

She handed him a small box. He couldn't open it fast enough. Inside the brown box caused him to cry. It was his brown journal and his scroll. He had these things since he started Beacon two years ago. These had all the memories of what him and his team went through. He jumped up and hugged his mother as tight as he could.

"I love you, mom." He said through his tears of joy.

He made to run away and back to his room, not realizing how weak he was at this current moment. He slammed hard onto the floor of the kitchen. He hated it because we wanted to be strong at least in front of his mother as much as possible. His mother made to help him, but he held up a hand for her to stop. He used the chair to help himself up and slowly walked away using the wall to support him while holding the box in his other hand. His mother followed him to make sure he got up the stairs and back to his room. When he closed the door, he put the box on his desk and sat in the desk chair. He carefully took out the journal and his scroll from the box and set the box on the floor. He turned on the scroll for it to boot up and opened his journal. In the front was a picture of him and his team on the first day of their second year in the dorm.

The one taking the picture was Bridget. She stood to the left closest to the camera. She had long flowing dirty blonde hair, was toned, brown eyes, tan, about 5'10", and a chest that caught more guys attention than she liked. Behind her sat on the bed was Irene. She had her legs crossed with her head tilted slightly and smiling. She had shorter blue hair, she was light skinned, had blue eyes that matched her hair, about 5' 6", and her bust was slightly below average. She had fox blue fox ears and a large bushy tail that matched her hair, but her ears and tail were tipped white. Standing behind the bed was Neal. He was flexing to show off his toned muscles. He was six feet tall, toned, Short-messy brown hair, blue eyes, somewhat tan, and was shirtless in the picture. Finally, On the far right was me. I was standing in front of the bed with my hands in my pockets smiling. My somewhat long hair brushed back making me look like a lion with a black mane, Slightly tanned skin, Light blue eyes, I'm somewhat muscular nothing to impressive, and I'm a tiny bit taller than Bridget.

Seeing this picture caused something to come up inside him. Just seeing everyone so happy and enjoying life made him feel sad because he's the only one left. As he stared at this picture he thought he had ran out of tears, but he couldn't help but cry. He leaned onto the desk and cried into his arms. As he cried he slowly fell asleep and as he fell asleep the picture slipped out of his hand and fell onto his wooden desk.

 **Hey. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. I don't really have much to say, but feedback is great I don't care what it is I just hope on person enjoys my writing. I won't put any spoilers here, but I might explain something that happened if people get confused. So anyway, I hope you enjoy and continue reading. (:**


	2. Chapter 2

Zach was tossing and turning in bed. He was sweating and kicking around wildly. He then immediately woke up shooting into a sitting position. He was breathing heavily then felt a touch on his left shoulder. He looked over to who it was. It was Irene. She looked happy and supported a huge smile. Her ears were perky, and her tail was waving behind her.

"Hey Zack. I love you." She said it with a smile and a wink.

This caused him to smile back at the blue haired fox.

"I lo-," before he could get any farther Irene leaned forward and started to fall off the bed. He went with her and hit hard on the floor but caught her before she hit the floor.

"Irene are you okay?" He said staring into her blue eyes.

She reached up with her hand and stroked his face. When she did this, he noticed that her normally white shirt had a large red stain on it.

"Irene you're bleeding! What happened who did this to you!?" He said in a panic scream.

She didn't answer but only smiled back. Zack blinked and looked closer at her shirt.

"Irene these are large scratch marks. How did this happen?" He said in an even more worried tone.

Zach blinked once more. Then he felt an ice-cold breeze roll down his neck. He looked up and realized it was now night time. There was fire, destroyed buildings, Gunfire, clashing of weapons, Screams of the people, and the roars of the Grimm. He blocked all of this out and focused back on his love.

"Irene were going to find you some help. Just hold on. Please hold on!" He started to yell.

Before he could move to stand she placed a hand on his cheek, stroked it, and tapped his nose. Then with a final smile her arm went limp and her face turned back.

"No Irene you can't go you must stay." He yelled as he held her closer and tighter. "You have to stay with me." Tears started to form in his eyes. "Irene, I don't want to lose you. Please don't go." He tried to hold her tighter, but it didn't feel like he could. When he tried to her would just slip more. He looked through the tears to Irene, but she wasn't there. He looked up and through his watering eyes he could barely see. When he wiped his eyes, he realized something.

'Where's the screaming and the gunfire and the metal clashing.' He thought to himself. 'Where's the rubble and the broken school and the airships.'

There was nothing around him. Everything was black, and it was quiet. He continued to sob while holding his knees. Suddenly it felt as though the walls of black were slowly closing in on him. He made to scream but nothing came out. His mouth was open trying his damnedest to yell out, but nothing came forth. No air or sound. He tried once more and felt himself suffocating. He felt the walls closing tighter around him. He tried one more time with everything he had.

He shot up at his desk and yelled at the top of his lungs. His desk was drenched and so was the shirt he was wearing. His mother busted in the room as fast as she could. She saw her youngest son standing in his room crying and covered in sweat. She quickly took him in embrace.

As she started to stroke his hair she whispered, "It's okay. It's over. You don't have to worry anymore.

He continued to sob into her arms. He tried to speak but the words just came out as sobs. He tightened his arms around his mother and felt her body heat against him. This let him relax slightly and to somewhat get his outburst under control.

"I'm s-sorry you h-have to s-see me like this." He quietly said to his mom as he stayed in her embrace.

"It's okay sweetie. You don't have to be strong for me. I'm just glad you're here and safe at home." She softly whispered into his ear. This statement broke something inside of him

"Well what about my friends!" He yelled pushing away from his mother. "They're all gone." He began to exclaim as more tears started to come forth. "Their families don't get see them ever again! They were taken away from them and from me! So, I must be strong for them! I don't want to cry! I don't want to be useless! I don't want to be depressed! I want to be strong! How could I possibly be strong If I want to cry at the mention or thought of their names!?" He stared at his mother with eyes of sadness and anger.

His mother looked back for a minute. She then made a move to talk.

"Mom I don't want your pity. Please just leave me alone. Don't expect me for a while. I want to be alone." He said this in a monotone voice that scared his mother.

She quickly turned toward the door to leave. As she slowly opened the door she looked back to see something she had never seen in her son before. The sight scared her more than any Grimm ever could. She saw the look of someone who was done. A look of nothingness. A look of a man with nothing to live on for.

"I love you son." She whispered as she turned away and left the room shutting the door quietly behind her.

Zach continued to stand there for a while. He stood there for so long the sweat in his shirt had dried. He looked over to the clock on his night stand it said 6:00pm. He didn't know what to do but he did know he didn't want to go back to sleep.

He sat back down at his desk. He cooled down since his outburst.

'I'll probably need to apologize to my mother for yelling at her,' He thought sadly. 'I hope she isn't mad at me.'

He picked up the picture he found in the front of his journal and gave it a bitter sweet smile. He then propped the picture against some books near the back edge of his desk. He then grabbed his leather journal. He stared at it for a few moments. Then decided to open it.

The front page had a message from his mom on it. 'Happy Birthday Zach! Nothing is better than memories, so as you go through Beacon write them down in here. You may never want to forget them.'

'Why did my mom have to be right' He thought as he flipped the page.

The page was labeled, 'Entry 1 – It's My Birthday!'

The Entry beginning was, 'So this is a thing now. I was given this among a few more things for my birthday. I got this along with a 6-inch bowie knife from my dad, a necklace with a small vile of dust that glows from my brother, and finally an ukulele from my best friend,'

'I bet all of those are buried under rubble now,' He thought to himself, 'I don't know if the dorms got hit or not, but I loved the shit out of those gifts. Maybe one day I can go scavenge through the dorms one day.'

As he continued to think about his cherished items being destroyed his eyes started to water. He quickly shook his head and kept reading.

'Oh. Neal and I decided to take his dad's scotch for my birthday. It tasted strong but better than I thought it would. We just walked around town. We didn't do anything real exciting. But thinking about it now getting drunk the day before Beacon was probably a bad idea considering how early we must get up. Luckily, we packed early today so we would be ready tomorrow morning to quickly leave. I put all my presents in my luggage, so I could take them to Beacon. Anyway, I'm going to go to bed, so I can get a small amount of sleep tonight and I hope I don't have a hangover when I wake up. I can't wait to write more.'

'That night was a lot of fun. I don't remember if we ever got caught, but it wouldn't matter now because he's gone. It doesn't matter because he's gone. He's gone isn't he. I'll never see him again.' He pondered the thought more and more as he got more and more teary eyed until he finally started crying once more. He forced himself up and to his bed where he continued to cry and cry until he slowly fell asleep.

 **So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. He's finally starting to read through his journal. I want each chapter to between 1,500 words and 2,000 words. I see some stories and they'll constantly post chapters with 5,000+ words and it blows me away. I'll probably never have an upload schedule for this story, but you never know. It's just kind of hard with college and High school and extracurriculars. I'll try my best to update this as much as I can. I also got feedback on my story which I'm super grateful for. So, thanks to LightningLink for the review. Remember to give a review of the story and to follow and favorite.**


	3. Chapter 3

Zach was sleeping in his bed until he heard a door close.

'What was that,' He thought as he continued to lay down. He opened his eyes and saw he was facing the wall. As he stared at the wall he heard footsteps approach him. The person set a tray of food on his nightstand. Then they sat on his bed causing it to sink in and make him slightly uncomfortable. The person proceeded to rub his shoulder that was exposed from under the covers of the bed. He just continued to stare at the wall. Then he saw the person's hand and realized it was his mother.

"I love you Zachariah, please don't forget that." She softly said while pushing the hair out of his face. She then kissed the side of his head and silently made her way out of the room.

When his mother left he sat up letting the covers fall to his waste. "It's gotten cold," He quietly said as he hugged himself and rubbed his arms. He looked over to his desk and on the chair, he saw clothes and a gray hoodie neatly folded. He slowly got himself up feeling cold and a little weak. He made his way over to the chair and put on the Gray hoodie over his pajamas. Feeling a little warmer he grabbed the pile of clothes and put them on his wooden floor. He looked back over to his bed and saw the tray his mother had brought in. It had pancakes, eggs, orange juice, and a paper.

'I'll eat later,' he thought as grabs the paper and puts it in his bottom desk draw. He then sits down in his chair and looks at the picture on his desk. He felt an instant rush of sadness over him, but he couldn't cry. His eyes felt dry and irritated. He rubbed them with his hand and that somewhat soothed the irritation. He sat there for a while just looking at the picture.

'Why can't I have that back. I'd do anything to have them back. I want to be happy. I don't want to be like this.' He thought as he closed his eyes as he looked away to not see the happy people in the picture. When he opened his eyes, he was looking down at his journal. He reached out for it slowly he opened the book to the entry he had read yesterday. He hesitated to turn the page holding it in his hand.

'Come on Zach it's just a book get it together' He thought to himself angrily. He slowly turned the page and heard a buzzing. He looked around and found his scroll was on the ground plugged into the wall. He got up and walked across the cold floor. On the screen was a message from his mom.

'I love you.' That's all the message said. He swiped it away and tried not to cry. He put the phone into his pocket and returned to his chair with glossed eyes. He wiped his eyes and started to read.

'Entry 2'

'Where should I start. I mean it's been an eventful day. I'll start from the beginning. So last night we spent the night in my room. Neal slept in the floor on like 5 blankets and I slept in my bed. We woke up late. We were supposed to take an airship from here to Beacon. And it's a pretty long flight and this was the second of two that were leaving today. The only reason we woke up was thanks to mom. She came in and started yelling because we were going to be late. This sent us into a frenzy because we had to be at the airship dock in 30 minutes and it's a 25-minute walk there and we had luggage and weapons to carry. So, we were in a bit of a pickle.'

'I remember this,' Zach thought with a bitter-smile, 'my mom wouldn't stop freaking out.'

'We quickly got up and mom said she would clean up, so we could leave faster. We changed quickly and grabbed all our crap. I had a large pull along suitcase, a backpack, and my rifle. Neal had 2 large pull-alongs and his giant battle-axe. When we got out the door he had 20 minutes to get there. So, we made the 25-minute walk a 10-minute sprint. We carried our suitcases and we ran as fast as we could. When we got there, we were so tired, but the real kicker was the flight got delayed by 30 minutes due to bad weather. We wanted to just die when we heard that news. Nothing too eventful happened on the 2-hour ride there. But when I came out of the restroom on the ship I saw Neal bent over a trashcan throwing up. I asked about it and he said it was the alcohol. I then made fun of him for it calling him a light-weight and he told me to piss-off. So, I sat close enough to him to watch him while staying far enough away to smell his puke.'

'I never let him live that down. Every time we went out to drink I would tease him about it. It was f-fun.' Zach thought with a sniffle and single tear running down his face. After a few minutes he calmed down and continued to read.

'After the ride there, our stuff was taken to the ballroom and we were told that there was a meeting happening soon in the auditorium. We had no idea where that was. We somehow also got split up. Then after 20 minutes of looking I couldn't find Neal, so I took off my rifle and sat on a bench that was along a walk way. I closed my eyes for a couple seconds to rest then a girl, who I now know as Bridget, took my rifle and started to fiddle with it. What woke me up was the clink of metal when she switched the rifle to sword mode. She seemed surprised when I didn't make a scene for her touching my weapon. She introduced herself and we talked for a little bit. She led me to the auditorium and then she had to meet with friends, so I let her go. I was bummed because she was fun to talk to and she is pretty damn hot if you ask me.

'Bridget was the first friend I made at Beacon and she had a way with words that would always make you laugh. I miss her.' He thought to himself while staring at the page.

'Anyway, when we got to the auditorium we had to listen to a speech from the 'Great' Headmaster. He said something about us having wasted potential that needed guidance. I didn't care to listen. Afterwards another teacher came on and everyone got super quiet. I don't see why, people were talking during the headmaster's speech why was she different? She told us were sleeping in the ballroom, that we need to put our weapons in our assigned lockers, and that we were dismissed. After putting my stuff in my locker, I finally met up with Neal and we went to the auditorium. I guess since he was one of the biggest dudes in the room he was invited to wrestle with a group of guys and I sat under a window and watched. From what I can see Neal won't have a single problem making friends. After watching them I sharpened my new knife then decided to write this so. I'm tired, but today was pretty fun, I can't wait for initiation tomorrow.'

Zach closed the book. He stood slowly and stretched.

'That was two years ago, where did the time go … Why did they have to leave me?' He thought as the tears started to come back.

When he finally got himself together he looked at the clock. It said 3:45pm. 'I'm going to go take a walk.' Thinking about how stale the air in his room had gotten

He changed into black jeans, a maroon shirt, and a white hoodie. He put on his black and white tennis shoes and grabbed his scroll. He left his room shutting the door behind him. He was about to make his way down the stairs when he heard a door close. He turned and saw his mother.

Seeing her son out of his room made a smile come to her face. But she caught sight of his face. His hair was a bit of a mess, his face a little oily, and his normally bright blue eyes were filled with sadness. This caused her smile to falter for a second, but she went back to holding the smile as she spoke.

"Are you leaving Zach?"

"Yes." He replied quietly trying to hide the sadness in his eyes.

Seeing this she quickly took him into her embrace.

After pulling away she said, "Okay. Don't be out too long."

He nodded and turned to leave. As he made his way through the door he heard his mother say, "Love you." Which only made him close the door faster.

He left his porch and went down to the sidewalk. As he walked he felt the wind assault his back making him shiver.

'Better than being in there.' He thought while continuing to swiftly walk down the side walk away from his depressing house. After about half an hour he made his way into town. Sadly, it was just as depressing as his house. There was an overcast of dark clouds. There were few people in the town and those that were looked cold and almost a miserable as he did. He continued to walk through town his mind void of thought as he kept his head down. His forward momentum suddenly stopped as he ran into something causing him to fall. He saw a pair of black shoes and quickly looked up to the man's face.

They looked into each other's eyes. The man Zach ran into made to say something but stopped seeing the look in Zach's eyes. The look brought a frown to the blonde man's face. He saw the look of a broken man. Knowing the feeling all too well the blonde man brought Zach to his feet, patted him on the shoulder, and continued to walk off.

As the man walked off he turned to watch the man. 'How the hell can someone wear cargo shorts in this weather?' Zach wandered as he started to walk in the opposite direction of the blonde man. After a few more minutes of walking he saw something that caught his eye. It was a music shop. In the display glass in the front he focused on one thing. The brown ukulele. His eyes started to water as he stared at it. Noticing this he quickly turned and started to walk away which broke into a run as he started to cry. The cold wind hitting against his face as he ran caused more water to from in his eyes. After running for a good while he found himself in a park. He was tired and cold, but he didn't want to go home. Not yet at least. He sat on the swing set seeing that there were no kids around and pulled out his scroll. The home screen had the picture of his team at the beginning of their second year.

"Why did they have to die." He spoke quietly. "Why couldn't have protected them!" He yelled into his hands. "Why am I alive!" He yelled as he started to sob. He soon began to cry. As he cried is started to snow. When he finally looked up from his hands he saw a layer of white all around him. He stood to go home but he felt weak.

'Where the hell am I?' He thought as he looked around. He spotted a small playhouse that kids would use and quickly went in. He shut the window and door quickly. Then sat on the ground against one of the walls shivering. He felt a little warmer not having the wind blowing against him. His stomach soon growled loudly, and he felt tired. He slowly slumped onto the ground holding his knees trying to keep war.

"I'm sorry everyone." He mumbled as he sobbed. "I wasn't strong enough. Now I'm going to pay for it."

"Do your w-worst Oum because I've g-given up. He spoke through his sobs.

He continued to cry into he's knees as he slowly fell asleep inside that small play house as the snowstorm outside continued to pick up.

 **So. Not much to say. I hope some of ya'll enjoy the story. Remember to follow and favorite and to also review so I can improve. I'll talk to you in the next one.**


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